These Chess Paintings are process paintings: each work is a record of a specific game played between two of the world’s top Grandmasters. The painting develops the way a chess games develops – one move at a time. Each painting begins with all the chess pieces painted in the starting arrangement. When the board is set, it’s white to move.

In response to each move of the actual chess game, pieces are painted out and repainted in the new square they occupy. Over the course of a single game many moves are made. Chess pieces are traveling back and forth across the board, jumping to squares, side-stepping threats, advancing ahead one square at time. In response, the same pieces are painted and repainted repeatedly, thus burying and revealing a series of events.

Only black and white paint is used. As sections and squares of the board become more active than others, a range of value is created. Through this process various structures and patterns emerge. Pressures and tension build and release. The finality of each game is a moment of silence that reveals remnants of uncaptured pieces and the differing fates of two opposing Kings.

Much like a fingerprint, each painting is a unique event and becomes indexical to a historical moment when two of the world’s greatest chess players battled for victory within the space of a square and within the rules of game.